Read the excerpt from act i, scene iii of romeo and juliet.

benvolio: tybalt, the kinsman of old capulet,
hath sent a letter to his father’s house.

mercutio: a challenge, on my life.

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benvolio: romeo will answer it.

mercutio: any man that can write may answer a letter.

benvolio: nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared.

mercutio: alas! poor romeo, he is already dead; stabbed with a white wench’s black eye; shot through the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft; and is he a man to encounter tybalt?

why does shakespeare include mercutio’s teasing words?

a to explain the history of the feuding families
b to criticize romeo’s neglect of his duties
c to condemn the established ritual of sword fighting
d to contrast the seriousness of tybalt’s challenge